Many aircraft utilize seat tracks to anchor passenger seats to the airframe of the aircraft. Due to stress loads experienced on the seat tracks, such as during aircraft flight, many traditional seat tracks are designed with thick components to support such stress loads. Although these components compensate for the loads, the thickness of the components adds weight and cost to the overall system. In some traditional seat tracks, which are extruded, the weight penalty is overcome by machining excess material in areas on the seat track where minimum loads are experienced. While effective, the machining of the extruded seat tracks is time consuming and may add costs to the manufacturing process.
Other conventional seat tracks may be manufactured from composite buildups in an effort to overcome the weight penalty issues involved with extruded seat tracks. While also effective, such designs, however, are generally costly due to the manufacturing of the numerous components from different materials, which require additional time and effort to assemble. Moreover, the assembling of the many components may present other unintended issues such as, but not limited to, welding issues, rework related to the welding issues, such as, cold fused or incomplete welded joints, and increased scrap material.